Extra's POV: My Obsessive Villainous Fiancee Is The Game's Final Boss

The water began splashing as more than a hundred bone takers assembled themselves, rising with the slow, unnerving patience of something that was too old to care about haste.

Skulls clicked into place on top of their spines and their rib cages clattered together like pieces of lego.

The long femurs snapped into arms and legs, and in their hands, they clutched their chosen weapons. Jagged ribs, sharpened vertebrae, hollow femurs they swung like clubs, and splinters of other skeletons that had been sharpened into blades.

They're not dead yet. Ren gritted his teeth, his eyes already scanning the bone takers for any openings.

The courtyard trembled beneath their feet. And then, they charged.

The bone takers came in waves, splashing through the knee high water with frightening speed. The sound was like a swarm of chattering teeth. Clicks, scrapes and the eerie rhythm of bones grinding against one another.

Lilith surged forward to meet them, her throwing knives infused with pale blue energy. She slammed her foot into the water, launching herself forward like an arrow.

She met the first wave in midair, her knives tearing through their bones and turning her momentum into destruction. Pieces of skull and splinters of ribs flew in every direction.

Elias followed, his sword a streak of fire. He cleaved one bone taker clean in half, only for the pieces to twitch in the water, slowly trying to drag themselves back together.

"They don't die!" Elias shouted, horror rising in his voice. "How are we supposed to get out of here?!"

Zuzu hurled a wave forward, spinning it into spears of water that impaled three at once. Still, more kept coming. Each time one fell, its parts would wriggle back toward each other like magnetized insects.

Thorn dove in the thick of the swarm of bone takers, gritting his teeth as he fought, his sword twisting around them.

He grunted, barely blocking a blow from a rib club when another bone taker came from behind. It slashed him with a wicked femur blade, and Thorn screamed.

His left hand flew through the air, cut clean just above the elbow, and his blood sprayed into the water.

Thorn dropped to his knees with a strangled scream, clutching his stump.

Zuzu rushed to cover him, forming a barrier of water that deflected another incoming blow. Elias was at his side in moments, grabbing his wrist tightly.

"Hold still. Breathe. This is going to hurt." Elias said through clenched teeth.

With a hiss of flame, Elias pressed the flat of his burning blade against the wound. Thorn screamed again, the sound raw and guttural. The smell of burning flesh filled the courtyard.

Ren kept fighting, his mind working on the problem at hand.

This wasn't Eternal Souls. In the game, bone takers died and stayed dead. But these ones reassembled. Their bones crawled back together.

How can he stop that from happening and make them stay dead? What was different from when he'd fought them in the game and now?

His gaze dropped to the water, and his eyes widened.

"It's the water!" Ren said suddenly. "It's remembering them. Rebuilding them."

Zuzu's eyes widened as she bisected another bone taker. "You think the Deep is using the water to recreate them?"

"Exactly." Ren growled, dodging a bone taker and kicking it away, shattering the ribs. "So let's take the water away."

He yanked his spatial pouch from his side and opened it wide. Then, with a twist of his wrist, he hurled it into the water.

The moment it touched the water, a vacuum force ignited. Water began rushing toward the pouch. It created a spiraling torrent that grew louder with each second.

"Everyone hold tight!" Ren bellowed.

Lilith roared and slammed two bone takers into the stone with brute force, pinning them in place. She spun and hurled knives at others trying to reach the group.

Elias dropped into a wide stance, shielding Thorn, who was pale but still conscious.

Zuzu extended her arms and sent out a wave of kinetic water pressure, staggering the bone takers long enough to give Ren's plan a chance.

The water was draining quickly, and their reanimation was slowing. But the battle still raged.

Elias stepped forward, ducking under a wide swing and thrusting his flaming sword into a bone taker's ribcage. It shattered from the inside, but he didn't stop. He kicked the remains across the stone floor, preventing the bones from regrouping.

One of them took the opportunity to lunge towards Thorn.

Thorn, who was barely conscious, saw the movement and raised his remaining arm. His cape twisted off his shoulders and in the air. It hardened into a smooth black shield and intercepted the blow.

"Fuck off." Thorn gasped.

The bone taker recoiled and was instantly skewered by one of Lilith's knives.

"Don't touch him." She growled, her voice cold. "He's Ren's friend."

Ren darted between the bone takers, using Push to shatter them against the walls and empower his movements at the same time.

Zuzu kept pulling from the rapidly draining water, condensing it into spinning blades and sending them flying across the courtyard, severing and shattering bones.

The pouch continued its feast, devouring the last of the knee high water. As they kept defeating the bone takers, their bones began clattering uselessly on dry stone.

A minute later, the last bone taker was destroyed by Lilith. She split it from jaw to pelvis in a single vertical slash. Its remains hit the stone with a wet slap.

They all stood there breathing hard.

The floor was now visible. It was strewn with bones and covered in seaweed. Broken weapons littered the area. Even pieces of armor.

Thorn lay on the ground, breathing hard. Sweat ran down his face. Elias crouched beside him, checking the cauterized wound.

Ren walked forward and picked up the spatial pouch. It was bloated now as it was filled with water. Then, he went to check on Thorn.

There was a rumble as all five doors in the courtyard began to groan.

Stone scraped against stone, and the doors slid open. From each, new waves of seawater surged in. It rose steadily until it once again reached their knees, replacing the water that had been drained.

They'd survived the sea torrent and the bone takers.

But not all in one piece.

And that was when a thought occurred to Ren.

If the Deep could learn from them… how long would it be until it made something they can't kill?